Matheson Collection > Popular tales of the west Highlands > Volume 1

Ixiv INTRODUCTION.
Africa by the grandson of the Moor here described,
when he sits on his flat roof or in his central court in
Tetuan, as I have done with one of the Jews now ruined ;
he Avill surely tell of his ancestor's deeds, repeat the
words in which Achmed abused the unbeliever, and tell
how he shot some mystical number of them with a
single ball.
"Upon the whole they stood their ground very stoutly, and
some of them gave proof of great courage, advancing singly along
the ridge until they caught sight of the first Spaniards posted
below it, when they discharged their espbifjardas and retreated."
"Stories" had begun in Morocco by the 9th of
January 1860, when the next letter appeared : —
" The Moors have been giving out fantastical histories of their
victories over the Spaniards, of their having taken redoubts,
which they might have held had they thought it worth while,
and in which they would have captured guns if the Christians
had not been so prudent as to remove them beforehand. These
are mere fables."
It may be so, but Moors seem to have fought as
wild, brave, undisciplined troops have always fought —
as Homer's Greeks fought, as Highlanders fought, and
as Fionn and his heroes fought, according to tradition.
Omit the magic of Maghach Colgar, forget that Moors
are dark men, and this might be an account of Diarmaid
and Conan in the story, or of their descendants as they
were described in 1745 by those who were opposed to
them : —
"The Moors are generally tall powerful men, of ferocious
aspect and great agility, and their mode of coming on, like so
many howling savages, is not calculated to encourage and give
confidence to lads who for the first time find themselves in action.
It seems nearly impossible to make them prisoners. In one en-
counter (most of these little actions are made up of a number of